RICHMOND, Va. – Police hosted Richmond’s second-ever gun buyback event outside Liberation Church on the city's Southside Saturday.
Richmonders who were 18 and older were able to turn in firearms for gift cards of up to $250 to businesses like Amazon and Kroger.
Organizers say the event's goal was to reduce the availability of guns in the community, provide an opportunity for the safe disposal of firearms, and to raise awareness of gun violence.
“An unwanted gun, an unattended firearm can be used in many ways,” Capt. John Hall with Richmond Police said. “It can make its way onto the black market, someone who is considering harming themselves can use it or a child might find it. So anything we can do to reduce the availability of a firearm is a good thing.”
Event organizers expected to collect about 300 guns from the event.
Richmond City Council approved $80,000 in COVID-19 relief funding so that Richmond can host the event citing it as one part of addressing the gun violence crisis.
Experts said that buybacks are to likely to have little impact on crime, but do provide some benefits for communities.
“A gun buyback program is not going to change much," VCU professor and law enforcement expert William Pelfrey said. "The people who bring guns in are not likely to be people who are criminals. The guns that come off the street are not likely to be used in a major crime event."
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Richmond wants you to hand over your guns in exchange for gift cards
At last year's event, 160 people participated and 474 guns were collected, according to police. The weapons included 227 handguns, 117 rifles, 126 guns that don't work and five assault weapons.
“People want the benefits of a gun buyback program if they have a gun that they don't want, if they have a gun that is worthless, that's an heirloom that they're never going to fire, if it's inoperable if it's something they just don't need," Pelfrey said.
Pelfrey said there were some benefits to the program:
- It's good PR
- If it does prevent even one shooting, the $80,000 price tag is likely less than the costs associated with a violent crime (healthcare costs, lost work time, criminal justice resources, jail time, court time, etc).
“$80,000 is absolutely worth it, but that's not going to get a whole lot of guns. When we're talking thousands and thousands of guns off the street, then it's going to influence crime. But for a few hundred guns off the street? It's a good thing, but it's not a great thing," Pelfrey said.
The gun buyback ordinance, which was patroned by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Richmond Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert, stated that the city's goals with the event were to reduce the availability of firearms, provide for safe disposal of guns and promote community engagement.
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